Paint spray booth

Abstract

A paint spray booth for painting articles, such as motor vehicles, having a housing with a bottom, a substantially horizontal floor spaced upwardly from the bottom and in which the floor divides the housing between an upper housing chamber and a lower housing chamber. The floor is flooded with water while a plurality of air scrubber units extend through the floor and fluidly connect the housing chambers together. Simultaneously, air is inducted from the upper chamber, through the air scrubber units and into the lower chamber so that the air scrubber units intermix the water and air together and so that paint particles entrained within the air become entrapped within the water. Each air scrubber utilizes a venturi to intermix the air and water together.

I claim: 
     
       1. A paint spray booth for spray painting articles comprising: a housing having a bottom and a substantially horizontal floor spaced upwardly from the bottom, said floor forming an upper housing chamber and a lower housing chamber, the articles to be painted being positioned in said upper chamber,   means for supplying water to an upper surface of said floor,   air scrubber means open through said floor and fluidly connecting said housing chambers for intermixing water and air,   means for inducting an air/water mixture from said upper chamber through said air scrubber means and into said lower chamber,   means contained in said lower chamber for collecting and removing water inducted into said lower chamber,   wherein said air scrubber means comprises   an elongated duct assembly open at each end and forming an air/water passageway,   a venturi contained in said duct assembly and in series with said air/water passageways, said venturi having an inlet end and an outlet end, said inlet end being of a first predetermined area, a throat intermediate said ends, said throat having a second predetermined area less than said first predetermined area, and said outlet end having an area greater than said second predetermined area   wherein said venturi comprises an inwardly extending lip at said throat, said lip having a plane substantially perpendicular to the axis of said venturi and extending entirely around said throat,   wherein said duct assembly comprises   an upper duct having an upper end secured to said floor, said venturi being contained in said upper duct,   an intermediate duct,   means for detachably securing an upper end of said intermediate duct to a lower end of said upper duct,   a lower duct, and   means for detachably securing an upper end of said lower duct to a lower end of said intermediate duct and   a plurality of baffles disposed in said intermediate duct.   
     
     
       2. The invention as defined in claim 1 wherein said venturi is rectangular in cross sectional shape. 
     
     
       3. The invention as defined in claim 1 wherein a longitudinal axis of said lower duct intersects a longitudinal axis of said intermediate duct at an angle of between 20 and 30 degrees. 
     
     
       4. The invention as defined in claim 1 wherein each of said detachable securing means comprises a hook on one side of one duct which engages a rod on one side of the adjacent duct, and a pin on the other side of one duct which engages a hole in the other side of the other duct. 
     
     
       5. The invention as defined in claim 1 wherein each of said detachable securing means comprises quick release detachable securing means. 
     
     
       6. The invention as defined in claim 1 and comprising a weir surrounding the inlet end of each duct assembly and means for flooding said upper surface of said floor.